• By SANDY DAVIS
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: May 1, 2009 - Page: 1A

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The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals is investigating eight suspected cases of the swine flu in four parishes, Gov. Bobby Jindal said Thursday during a news conference.

The eight samples have been sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta for confirmation of the disease, which is also known as H1N1. The results should be known in two to four days, Jindal said.

The suspected cases in Louisiana involve five schoolchildren in Lafayette Parish and one each in Orleans, St. Martin and St. Tammany parishes, Jindal said.

State epidemiological teams are in the four parishes conducting an investigation into the suspected cases.

Family members, friends, and people with contact to those with the suspected cases are being tested and interviewed by the state investigators, the governor said.

Some of the eight people whose tests have been sent to the CDC have either traveled to Mexico or were exposed to someone who traveled there, Jindal said.

The governor said 148 samples have been sent to DHH’s Office of Public Health’s laboratory in New Orleans for further testing.

“The disease is beyond containment in the United States,” said Alan Levine, secretary of the Department of Health and Hospitals.

“It’s prudent to expect to see some cases,” Levine said of expectations that there will be swine flu cases in Louisiana.

There are no suspicious cases reported in Baton Rouge, but a student at Woodlawn High School, who recently returned from a family trip to Mexico, went to the doctor Wednesday with symptoms of a cold, said Chris Trahan, a spokesman for East Baton Rouge Parish schools. As a precaution, the doctor told the student to stay home for seven days.

Parents should expect to get an automated message from Woodlawn Principal James Newman that says the school will remain open, Trahan said.

DHH said it is possible some of the cases are a seasonal flu rather than the H1N1 virus.

But Jindal said the CDC is being more cautious. Until now, only flu samples that tested positive for Type A influenza in a doctor’s office were sent to the state for further testing. Swine flu is one of several viral strains of Type A influenza.